The Kipper!

Ahh, Kip Wells. The former "Most Frustrating Pirate of All-Time" (TM) will take the mound this afternoon (it's a 2:15 PM Labor Day start) against the man who's looking to take his title, Ian Snell. I'm not here to discuss the merits of 2003 Wells vs. 2007 Snell, but Snell is quickly becoming the king of, "Well, he pitched well ... except for that three run homer that he gave up to (insert a lefty here) in the second." That's in direct contrast to his awesome first half in which he shut lefties down and kept the ball in the park (that's a post for later, though). As for Kip, he's actually got a sub-4.00 ERA since mid-June. He's still frustratingly walking a million people, which isn't something that will help the Pirates out at all and will probably lead to 11 strikeouts today. Don't forget that the Cards are still only 2 games behind the Cubs despite a bad-luck ridden championship defense year that makes what the Steelers went through in the NFL last year look like nothing.